This proposed research project will examine whether and how a narrative-based integrative preschool curriculum module, centered on a structured practice of child storytelling and group story-acting, can serve as a powerful context for promoting three key, mutually reinforcing components of young children's school readiness: narrative skills (and the broader cluster of decontextualized language skills), emergent literacy, and social competence (including capacities for cooperation, self-regulation and social understanding). Although versions of this curriculum module are used in a wide range of preschools in the U.S. and abroad, there have been few attempts to systematically evaluate its operation and effectiveness, especially for preschools serving low-income and otherwise disadvantaged children. And no previous study has attempted to evaluate the effects of this curriculum module for all three of these dimensions of school readiness in a comprehensive and integrated manner. [unreadable] [unreadable] The study will include 15 randomly selected Head Start classes in a major US urban area (with a total of about 250 3- to 5-year-old children). (About three-quarters of children in this Head Start program are African American, and almost all are from low-income families.) In six classes (full treatment classes) the curriculum module will be introduced at the beginning of the school year and continued through the entire year. The other nine classes will fall into three categories: In three classes (partial treatment 1) the storytelling (dictation and transcription) component of the practice will be used without story-acting, but with public reading of the children's stories to the class; in three classes (partial treatment 2) will use storytelling only; in three classes (control) there will be neither storytelling not story-acting. In all classes, an adult book-reading activity will be introduced as a common background condition. Data collection will be distributed over 2 years, to make the most effective use of available resources and personnel. This project has significant implications for both developmental psychology and educational practice. It can help us understand how narrative-based practices that combine structured guidance with children's initiative and peer-group collaboration can effectively be used to promote young children's learning and development. [unreadable] [unreadable]